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Former Lt. Gov. Healey To Head Babson College

Babson College has announced that former Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey has been selected the first woman to lead the college.

Healey was elected president of the private business school Sunday night by a vote of the college board of trustees. She will assume her new position on July 1, succeeding Len Schlesinger.

Healey was lieutenant governor under Mitt Romney and a past chair of the Massachusetts Republican Party. An academic by training, she has been an advocate for the expansion of women's rights and higher education in Afghanistan.

Babson's trustees chair Joseph L. Winn said Healey's "achievements in academia, government, and humanitarian efforts across the globe speak to the impact she can make in any environment."

"I hope to lead Babson to be the worldwide leader in entrepreneurship education while preserving its deep New England roots."

Kerry Healey

"Babson is a perfect step for me because of their focus on entrepreneurship and also their focus on globalization of their effort," Healey told WBUR's Morning Edition. "I hope to lead Babson to be the worldwide leader in entrepreneurship education while preserving its deep New England roots."

Healey said she hopes to strengthen Babson's international partnerships.

"We have something unique to offer the world: how to become entrepreneurs, not just in terms of making profits but also in terms of social entrepreneurship. They really focus on the triple-bottom line, which is people, profit, but planet as well," she said.

Healey had been regarded as a possible candidate for both John Kerry's U.S. Senate seat and for governor, but with her new appointment, she said she will be taking a break from the political stage.

"I have committed to stay with Babson and to step away from politics at least through 2019 because that is their centennial celebration," Healey said. "And I'm stepping away from partisan politics secure in the knowledge that RNC leader Reince Priebus is making serious and successful efforts to address the vulnerabilities that the last election cycle exposed."

With reporting from the WBUR Newsroom and The Associated Press

This article was originally published on March 25, 2013.

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